Elastic heel for shoes.



No. 636,796'. Patented-Nov. 14, |899.

H. B; HAIGH. ELASTIC HEEL FOR SHUES'. (Application led Aug. 8, 1899.)

(No Model.)

wwf/M@ v j NiTnn TATES AfrrNT FFIC' HENRY B. HAIGH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ELASTIC HEEL FOR SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 636,796, dated November 14, 1899.

Application filed August 8, 1899. Serial No. 726,551. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom, it may concern:

Beit known that I, HENRY B. HAIGH, a citizen of the United States,residing at New York, (Brooklym) county of Kings, and State of New York,haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Elastic Heels for Shoes, of which the following is a full, clear,"and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to devices intended to give elasticity to the heel of a shoe in walking, to prevent slipping, to aid in the comfort of the shoe in use, and to render more durable and less liable to Wear the ordinary leather heel.

It has long been customary to provide rubber plates of various kinds for shoe-heels; but in' all such shoes that I am acquainted with the rubber is so secured that in a very short time the plate is worn down to the leather heel and a new plate must be provided or all benefits from the elastic heel are parted with.

It is the purpose of myinvention to provide an elastic tread for the heel which shall wear down no faster than the leather heel and which by its method of construction andfastening shall prevent scufng or'slipping, and thus largely decrease the ordinary wear on the leather heel. This I accomplish by a certain novel construction and arrangement to be hereinafter particularly pointed out and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective View of the sole of an ordinary shoe with my improvement in place. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the heel with the top lift slightly removed. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of the top lift.

A is an ordinary shoe provided with the usual heel B.

O is the top lift, in which is cut a groove a, preferably around the lift from one inner edge to the other. This groove is beveled or dared inwardly, and Within this groove is inserted a rectangular strip of rubber Z7 or other like'material slightly thicker than the lift, so as to allow the rubber to extend slightly above the tread-surface of the lift, as shown at f, Fig. 3. The top lift is then spanked on the other steel-pegged lifts in the usual way, and the shoe is ready for use. To hold the rubber strip in place, I prefer toleaveaslight tongue c to the'rubber, and asingle nail may then be driven through the lift and this tongue to se'- curethestrip againstdisplacement; butmany methods of holding or securing the strip will readily suggest themselves, and I do not wish to limit myself to any particular method. The peculiarity of myelastic heel over any others in use lies in the fact. that the strip only extends slightly above the ordinary heel-surface and that spaces d d are left within the groove, owing to its dovetailed construction, within which the rubber can expand when external pressure is brought to bear thereon in use. When the heel is brought down in walking, the rubber at once grips the surface, prevents any sliding, slipping, or scufng, and then under the pressure of the weight of the user the rubber compresses vertically flush with the surface and expands laterally into the side spaces d d, preventing any undue wear on the rubber and allowing the contact wear to come on the leather; but by reason of the fact that the rubber first grips the surface the ordinary wear on the leather is very much reduced and what wear there is always retains the rubber surface in the same relative position to the leather surface,slightly projecting therefrom. This is due to the peculiar relation which exists between the wearing qualities of leather and the wearing qualities of the rubber strip under the conditions of use above described. This relation is such that it produces the result that the rubber always projects beyond the surface of the heel and is not Worn down level with that surface, because the rubber does not take all the wear and the leather of the heel wears away as fast as does the rubber of the projecting strip. Hence the rubber strip retains its prominence until it is worn out.l It is obvious, however, that other materials having substantially the same wearing properties as leather would be the equivalent of leather in this combination.

The particular shape of the groove for retaining the rubber strip andthe Width and thickness of the strip are of course not material, so long as there is maintained such relation between the projecting rubber and the side spaces of the groove that the amount of contraction of the rubber under compression may be taken up in the space for expansion.

IOO

It is not essential that a single strip of rubber should be used or that the grooves should be dovetailed, as shown, provided that space is left Within the groove for the expansion of the rubber and that the rubber only extends a slight distance above the tread-surface of the heel. A plurality Of strips may be used and the grooverecessed to leave space forexpansion Without dovetailing.

Having thus described inyinvention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A heel for shoes made of leather, provided with a recess in the lowersurface of the heel, and a rubber piece fitting in said recess, but not completely filling the saine, with the upper surface extending only slightly above the Outer surface of the heel, with means for holding said rubber piece in place, substantially as described.

2. A heel for shoes, provided with a recess in the lower surface of the heel, and a rubber piece fitting in said recess, but not com- .pletely filling the saine, with the upper surface of the rubber extending only slightly above the outer surface of the heel, and a tongue on the rubber piece extending between the top lift and heel for holding the said rubber piece in place, substantially as described. 3. In a heel for shoes, a top lift therefor, made of leather, provided with a slot wider within than at the surface, and a rubber strip fitting in said slot but not completely llng the same, and means for retaining said strip Within the slot, substantially as described.

4. In a heel for shoes made of leather, the combination, with the heel, of the top lift therefor provided with a slot having walls flaring inwardly, and a rubberstrip tting in said slot but not completely filling the saine, with the upper surface of the rubber extending only slightly above the outer surface of the top lift, and atongue on the strip extending bet-Ween the top lift and the heel for retaining the strip in place, substantially as described.

HENRY B. IIAIGH. Vitnesses:

DAVID BOONE, J r., GEO. H. FULLERTON. 

